Alpha Manufacturing is planning a £1m investment for the first few months of 2017 which follows a recent £1m installation of a STOPA automated storage system and Trumpf Trulaser 3030.
The latest investment will see the addition of a Trumpf Trubend 7000 cell to Alpha’s current Fold offering whilst a Trumpf TruPunch 5000 S12 machine will bolster Punch capabilities.
Installation of the TruBend Cell is due to begin at the start of May and is expected to take two weeks, while the TruBend machine installation will begin at the start of June and will also take three weeks to complete.
The new TruPunch 5000 will increase Alpha’s current punch capacity by around 20% thanks to its superior capabilities in productivity, process reliability and flexibility.
Processing speeds will be dramatically improved thanks to the machines sheetmaster, allowing automated loading and unloading of materials and a 90-station tool changer which will negate the need to manually replace tools between jobs.
The addition of this machine also fits Alpha’s long term strategy of shopfloor automation as it will eventually become fully integrated with the new STOPA storage system.
This means that raw material can be picked from stores, punched and then loaded back into storage once completed, ready for the next process.
The installation of these new machines, alongside Alpha’s latest additions, will aim to make a significant change to the factory layout as strategic WIP is evaluated with integration into the STOPA system in mind.
It also aims to show the company’s commitment to growth through strong investment in the latest manufacturing technology in order to stay at the forefront of sheet metal fabrication.